St. Michael Grad Charged with Assault by Strangulation

A graduate now living in Otsego has been arrested and charged with domestic assault by strangulation after an incident in St. Michael early Monday morning. 

Brandon Lee Dick, 26, of Otsego was charged in Wright County District Court Tuesday with a felony after he attacked and "did unlawfully and intentionally impede normal breathing or circulation of blood by applying pressure on the throat or neck...of a family household member." 

The complaint continues:

Authorities responded to a report of a domestic assault in the 11800 block of 37th Street Northeast in St. Michael around 2 a.m. on Memorial Day. There, they talked to a woman who was crying and upset. 

The woman, who had blood on her sweatshirt and a bloody lip, the officer reported, said her boyfirend, Brandon Lee Dick, had punched her, pushed her, threw her into a bathtub and strangled her. 

The woman said she and Dick had been drinking that day, and while at a bar in Albertville, Dick left and she headed home to her mother's in Albertville.

Dick then began texting the victim shortly after midnight. She responded to pick him up, but while driving Dick began hitting and slapping her. 

The woman said she hit back, giving Dick a bloody nose. She said that, while she was driving, Dick punched and kicked her windshield, causing cracks. Eventually, he jumped out of the car at an intersection. She coaxed him back into the car. 

The woman drove Dick to his father's home, where the assualt, she said, took place. The woman said she was thrown around a living room and Dick then took her into a bathroom, threw her in the tub and choked her. 

The woman reported that Dick used both hands around her throat, several times, and she stated he would squeeze to the point where she felt "tingly." 

Deputies investigating did see redness around the woman's neck and throat area. 

Later that day, the complaint states, detectives spoke with Dick, who admitted getting into an argument with the woman. He said the woman assaulted him, not the other way around, and that he cracked her windshied by "bracing himself" against it.

Dick also said he only remembered texting the woman, but officers found numerous texts between midnight and 1:30 p.m. the next day.

Assault by strangulation is a felony and carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison and/or a $5,000 fine. 

Dick was questioned in the infamous . In that case, deputies questioned where Tuimisto was in the hours after the punch that sent one man to a hospital, where he died months later. 

Dick told authorities he didn't know where Tuimisto was and lied about blood on his clothing, before changing his story, according to that criminal complaint.